Down to Earth
by Yohko no Gothika
Summary: Chapter 4: Finally locating the Goddess of Darkness, the YuYuTeam is suddenly confronted with a new problem - Keiko, Yukina and Genkai are now hostages of their foe! Rated for violence and language. R&R.
1. Prison Break

**Yohko's Little Notsie to the Concerned, Frustrated, or Mildly Confuzzled** --  
Ohayoo. Okay here's the deal: I can't start this in the Dark  
Tournament. The original plan was to come in, set up Kimi, and mess up  
Tuguro's face fer what he did to Genkai. But after seeing the finale  
for myself I just couldn't keep going this way. It was just TOOOOOOO  
perfect! So I decided to write the rest of it the same way...just tweak  
a few BIG things in order to take it away from the stadium and such.  
Just to explain a few things that would of come out: Kimi no Shi is  
actually Kurami (Kura) the Goddess of All Evil and Darkness and the  
Gaurdian of Limbo, whose power towers over anything ever recorded  
including, of course, anything the Spirit Detectives, or King Enma for  
that matter, have ever generated (hint hint). She is the twin sister  
of Kugami (Kuga) the Goddess of All Purity and Love and the Gaurdian  
to the Gates of Heaven, and both are the eldest and most powerful of  
the twelve Sister of the Elements. NOW THEN. Recently, all twelve of  
them have disappeared mysteriously into thin air, except for Kura, who  
by some incredible force has been turned into a human! This physical  
form is immortal, therefore ageless and unable to become sick or  
physically die, but it is a physical form, putting extreme limitations  
on the power Kura can tap into. This "regression" of sorts has forced  
our favorite Goddess of Destruction into a comatose sleep, and for the  
public's safety Enma has seen too it that she is safely under lock and  
key at the most secure prison on the Makai. But some have their doubts  
that even this could hold Kura, who they have been taught to respect  
and fear as the bringer of their demise. And these doubts have begun  
to wear through the threads securing Kura's mind in this current state  
of coma she's in...duhn duhn duhn! Have fun! Oh, two things: FIRST I  
wanted to tell everyone that I rated this one G because there's a  
censored version you can read instead of this cussy sweary one. It's  
kind of the "Toonami" anime versus the uncut version. (This would be  
the uncut version.) SECOND (hint) just because I don't outright ASK  
for requests doesn't mean I don't WANT them. I don't own YuYuHakusho.  
I do own Kura and Kuga however. Don't think you can use them unless  
you really WANT someone out to get you.

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Installment the First : Prison Break and the First Taste of Mortalism  
  
Audrey stared through the sound-proof, 2' thick plexiglass at the nearly lifeless form of Kura the Harbinger of Destruction. "Hard tuh berlieve," she said to just herself. "Real hard berlieve, yuh know. Thet THET'S Kura. Towk about weirud." She pressed her blue nose right up against the glass. "Look's joost lahk she's sleepin, er sumim. Too weirud."  
  
Suddenly she stepped backwards hurriedly, her pupils shrunken, the whites of her eyes flashing in her panic. "ah...ah!" She screamed and turned to run, but never made it.  
  
CHOOM!  
  
A huge burst of youki sent the glass flying in a bazillion shards, miniscule in comparison to their original size, but still with an average width of about 3'. Audrey got struck by one directly in the back of the head, ending her life instantaneously.  
  
Kura's eyes, heavy with sleep, fluttered open, her dark lashes practically glowing in the dim light. She blinked twice and picked herself up, and wandered unsteadily to the gap between the walls her awakening had made. Still not quite in her right mind, she looked herself over. No wounds, it seemed, unless you counted the lace nightgown she was in and that someone had put her silky dark gray hair into braided pigtails. Groggy as she was, Kura still thought that was disgusting.  
  
After blinking a few more time Kura finally started to get a grip on her self. The comatose, like a sleeping drug, was starting to wear off. She knew she couldn't do much right now, except wait for its effects to weaken completely. But footsteps in the distant hallway of guards brought on by the noise, and the screeches of alarms put her still sleeping brain into overdrive. Instincts told her to get away as quickly as possible. "And..." she mumbled, "That's...Just what I'll do."  
  
She stumbled to the wall across from her cell, and pressed her head to it. The cold steel felt like a good bucket of cold water poured onto her head, and she shook herself. She still felt drunk, but that was nothing she couldn't handle.  
  
With the appearance of the first guard come around the corner, Kura simply stood there, staring at the wall. She had to focus, had to block out everything else...Soon enough she was surrounded, but that didn't matter. She wasn't seeing double anymore, and her tongue no longer felt like dusty rubber. She looked slowly to her left and to her right, smirking. "Now now..." she said to her trembling captors, "what seems to be the problem gentleman?"  
  
"St-St..." one stepped forward to say. He was tall, maybe six foot, dressed all in a gray pilots suit which was typical guard uniform in the Underworld, and mustached. Kura hated men like this. Too much of their face was hidden by greasy hair in order to accurately identify terror or anguish. Dispicable. And then there was the fact that she always had to look up in order to talk to them. (A.N. Kura is only about 5'3"...)  
  
"Well?" she said slowly, carefully. "What is it dear?  
  
"St-St...Step...down...Kurami..." he practically whispered. "We...have you surrounded."  
  
Kura smiled and turned to stare at him. "What's that?" she said, cupping her ear with a delicately pale hand. "Couldn't hear you." He winced and begin to shiver even more obviously.  
  
"St-St...STEP DOWN!" he choked out, he eyes squeezed tightly shut.  
  
She chuckled. "Oh well," she said, shifting from one foot to another. "That's quite a problem isn't it? I don't seem to have anywhere to step...then again, such is so easily fixed." Before anyone could stop her, or object, she had thrown her hands outward and released another blast of dark, malicious force.  
  
ZAAM!  
  
The bang sent all the guards flying, and left the ones closest (including the one who had spoken) thoroughly bloody. But the back blast was more powerful than expected, and the heat of it left Kura's head throbbing. She swore to herself and leapt directly upwards, THROUGH the low ceiling and onto the roof.  
  
"Damn...how can such little power be such hell to remaster?" she asked herself, cracking her knuckles back and forth and back and forth, and rubbing her sore neck, back, and arms.  
  
"HEY! YOU!"  
  
The gruff voice of a large guard caught Kurami's attention and she whirled around. Without thinking she blasted from her palm and put a smoldering through the woman's stomach. She barred her teeth through the back blast and covered her face with her arms. It wasn't as big this time, although the attack was twice as powerful and much more precisely aimed. Curious, but not in a way that would stall her, Kura ran the length of the roof and leapt the span of distance to the next building with the grace of cat. Landing was more of any issue because of what a new sensation Pain was, but Kura desperation for freedom was intensifying as she regained her alertness, and the number of guards racing about the facility increased. She burst through the ceiling of the second building, willing to take her chances on land rather than try flying in her current state.  
  
A group of trainees coming around the corner of a hallway found Kura off her defense, and she dodged, running on the wall to avoid colliding with them, and shooting the floor near their feet as an alternative to wasting her energy targeting them. From then on, however, she shot down anyone who crossed her path. Thousands of corpses soon littered the halls of the second building. But still more came. Kura found herself desperately trapped. She had never been so limited with her energy like this; otherwise many more would have died that day. She made herself another way out through the ceiling (she had been chased too far from her self-made entrance) and ran again across the roof tops. A trick used once never works quite the same again, of course, and the guards had seen this done once not long enough before. So the roof tops were soon as much a graveyard as the interior of the second and first buildings.  
  
Finally someone got to the Control Room of the seventh building and paged a message through. To this day, no one knows who it was, because they truly never said anything. They did however, tap into the security cams of the building, and somehow I do believe that the mere images of Kura sabotaging the mediocre guards were enough to get Enma's attention. Soon the police were streaming in from everywhere, and thousands of death certificates streaming out, littering the heavens and Koenma's small office.  
  
Kura felt the mixture of sweat and blood trickling down the sides of her face and new she couldn't cope with this much longer. The pain of exhaustion was more terrible than she had ever imagined. She panted, breathing hard and she blew a whole in the vast and steadily increasing army of law enforcement, knowing that she couldn't fight much longer. She would have to atleast ATTEMPT flying. She had to, or she would never escape; she would never be free. And freedom was all that had ever truly mattered to her.  
  
She dashed to the edge of the roof (she was on the seventeenth build out of twenty), her feet skimming the surface, and sprang into the air. A multi- dimensional wormhole transport; that's what she had to make. A gigantic black hole leading to the human world, created by the last of her spirit energy. It was a fifty-fifty chance of freedom or capture; victory or defeat; yes or no; life or death. If she could summon the strength to make it they would never find her, not in time. She would recover and then come back to destroy them all. And as she rocketed into the open air, braids coming undone, eyes closing, heart churning, she knew that that was what had to happen.  
  
A ripple of determination and hatred surged through her, enlivening all she had left. She clenched her fists and they glowed as her nails long, black nails brought on a slosh of dark red blood from soft, unused palms as they glowed with Battle Aura. She couldn't not withstand the feeling of Pain for long at first (it was so new and...painful!) but with the passing seconds found she could ignore it. She grabbed the obsidian cross hanging on her neck by a long silver chain and jabbed it into the air in front of her, saying as quickly as she could the words that completed the spell:  
  
"Heavens above! The Darkness comes to You! On bended knee I come, bearing gifts of Power and Gratitude! Come to me! Split and allow me to pass!"  
  
Kura hung suspended in air as the clouds embraced her, becoming dark and filled with thunder as they surrounded her form. "TO THE HUMAN WORLD!" she screeched, a huge amount of youki following out of her pendant and diving into the open space above her.  
  
And it was, in the sonic boom that followed, making even those without ears deaf, that the cloud dispersed, and Kura was gone.


	2. Pulsations

**Yohko's Note to the General Public:**

_Studies of this YuYuHakusho fan fiction report that it is, indeed, a hazard to your physical and mental well being and can result in the following symptoms: terror, horror, depression, and strange addictions to alternative rock groups such as Linkin Park and System of a Down. Physicians of the Fan Fiction Board of Health advise that anyone who continues to read this story review as soon as possible, because it is the only noticeable cure. Thankyou. _

PS: No I don't own YuYuHakusho. Whatcha wanna make of it, punk?

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**Installment the Second : Pulsations**

Yusuke let his mind slip into to total and complete recession, zoning out on Mr. Futotteimaru's Algebra lecture. Kuwabara snored loudly from the desk beside him and even Kurama was having trouble focusing from the back of the class. 'Ugh...' Yusuke groaned to himself. 'How is it I can already think of twenty-two good reasons I shoulda ditched class, and I've only been here for an HOUR?' He stared at his fingernails, which were short and rather grimy. 'So booored.'

A sudden movement from behind him got Yusuke's attention. Kurama had just sat up straight and stiff as a board, his face pale in a look of shock and mild horror. He turned to stare, mouth half-agape, through the window. Surprised, and constantly looking for ways to avoid the lecture, Yusuke turned in the same direction. And that's when they felt it: the pulsation.

It was odd because it was nothing big. Only a slight shiver of air. But the impact it had was enormous; Kurama jumped two feet and gasped; Yusuke fell backwards out of his chair; Kuwabara woke with a yelp. Then the beeping sounded. The whole class stopped whatever they were doing and turned to stare at Yusuke Urameshi's "Demon Detector" wrist-watch as it screamed its alarm to them all.

The Spirit Detective, recovering from his initial surprise pressed a button on the side and the compass in the middle swung violently to the left indicating a demon 350 kilometers away. "Woah," Yusuke stared at the watch. "That's weird..." Suddenly he found Kurama at his side, staring at the watch as well. "Yes," the fox nodded, rouge bangs bobbing. "Quite odd. It shouldn't go off unless there's one LESS than 50 kilometers away, am I correct?"

"Yeah," Yusuke said, still shocked from the pulsing of the air only a few seconds before. "Something must be wrong with-"

"No way Urameshi." It was the first Kuwabara had spoken in quite a while. Both Yusuke and Kurama looked up at their friend, who looked utterly terrified and was still staring straight out the window from his seat. "That demon's way powerful. Whatever it is."

"Wait, you can feel it? From this distance?" Yusuke cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah. And it's scarin me out of my mind," Kuwabara shivered.

"Um, Suiichi, Yusuke? I'm so sorry to interrupt but could you two please take your seats?" Mr. Futotteimaru's nasaly little voice cut in.

Yusuke lifted himself off the ground and Kurama and Kuwabara stood up behind him. "Sorry, but we've gotta be somewhere Flubber," Yusuke growled, grabbing his bag. The other two grabbed theirs, and they trotted out of the room as a trio, Mr. Futotteimaru trail "but-but-but-but-but"s after them. As they left the building, Yusuke's watch still sounding like mad, they all had one thing on their minds: find Hiei and make sure they hadn't been hallucinating.

They didn't have to search very far. They had barely left the grounds when the demon landed a few feet in front of them, his Jagan glowing beneath his bandana.

"My, what a coincidence meeting you here," Kurama sighed.

"Hn. So I assume you all felt that pulsation?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Kurama nodded, his face darkening. "Indeed. And I truly hope it's not what I think it is." The two exchanged quite meaningful looks just then, Kurama's eyes turning golden and shimmering with guilt and worry, and Hiei's practically glowing with arrogance and contempt. "If you hold her in any higher a place than the rest of us," Hiei said finally, "you'll do us all a good favor to keep that to yourself, Kurama." Kurama's eye widened and he gave Hiei a look, one that Yusuke had never seen him give before; it was a glare full of such terrible anger and momentary hatred that it was nearly palpable. Both humans over looked the scene, unsure of what to do. But soon enough it was over, and Hiei turned to them with a blank stare, probably covering whatever he was feeling at the moment, but it was too hard to read anyhow. "Koenma says he-"

"Wants you all in his office right now!" cried a familiar voice. It was Botan now who came jogging up an alley to the front of the school. She was still dressed in her fortune-telling outfit, and it looked as is she'd been running for quite a while. "Well, right on schedule," Yusuke said with a small smile. "Whasamatter Botan? You look like you're about to keel over."

"And I just might!" she screamed, bending over and resting her palms on her knees in an attempt to catch her breath.

"So Koenma wants us, huh?" Kuwabara said. "But how we gunna get there? I thought his castle was, like, up in the sky or somethin."

"It is, fool." Hiei glowered.

"Am not!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Well," Botan panted, through a curtain of light blue hair that had come loose while she was running, "I was going to open a portal for you with my oar...just give me a minute. Oh...and once you get there, please just try to let him talk. King Enma is really upset right now...and it's kind of stressing everyone out."

"Yes. In fact, SOME OF US should try to stay as quiet as possible," Hiei said, glaring at Kurama who returned it with vigor.

"Uh, yeah, Botan? You might wanna think about getting on that portal making ASAP," Yusuke mumbled into the ear of his blue-haired partner.

"Yes, point taken," Botan said, summoning her oar out of the air with a gesture. She took it by the wooden end and used it to slice through the air, revealing a gash in the dimension. "It's a dimensional rivet. It SHOULD open up right outside of Koenma's office."

"And if it doesn't?" Yusuke asked in a skeptical voice.

Botan shifted uneasily. "Can we...not go over that?"

"Then you'll be sent plummeting into a black hole of misery and woe, learning all the secrets of the universe and having your atomic structure obliterated as your soul is perpetually ripped and torn until it no longer exists," Hiei said calmly, stepping towards the portal.

"Great, now I know everything will be all right," Kuwabara said uncomfortably.

"Hey, never know until you try," Yusuke said, "but just in case, why don't YOU go first Kuwabara?"

-----

The cherry blossom petals where scattering in the wind beneath the troubled sky. The park was completely deserted and thoroughly pink, the petals carpeting the grass. The drizzle dampened them and made those in flight sink back to their earthly home.

A pulsation, the detectives had felt just minutes before, echoed through the sky and in an eruption of thunder Kura burst through the clouds, the multi-dimensional wormhole transport closing with an unheard _shloop_ behind her. She wavered, in a daze from lack of energy, eyes only half open, and then fell. The grasped with her quickly fading conscious onto the last shred of energy she had left and it ballooned out into a parachute of force, weakening the effects of the 300-foot drop to a deafening thud.

Kura lay on her back, blinking in the steadily hardening rain, the bloodstains on her face and hand softening and washing away, her wounds being naturally rinsed clean. She realized what she was wearing and winced as the white, lacy nightgown dampened in the downpour. Finally, with effort, she lifted herself and shook the petals out of her waist-length dark gray hair. As she stood she looked herself over for the first time, and scoffed, knowing that as a mortal she was violently attractive. And she was. Short as she was, she was perfectly balanced: Her long luxurious hair complimented naturally tan skin; she was grotesquely shapely with a bust large for her size, a small waist, and sizeable hips that gave her a perfect hour-glass shape; she had dark lips, a small mouth, and dark eyes that matched her slender eyebrows; her thighs were tight, her abs smooth, and there was no visible body fat on her whatsoever. (A.N. There, a visual for those who didn't read it before. Ain't she perty?)

She sighed. She HAD to get something better to wear. But, looking down at the shimmer-less pendant she still held her hand, she knew that she could never make them herself. Her power was far too low. "Dammit," she swore. She could just barely move with this power level, and she knew that if she didn't get some fuel in her system, she succumb to the physical and spiritual exhaustion the breakout had caused her.

She stumbled to a tree, and leaned against it for support. She closed her eyes and tried to focus, but couldn't. The Pain, a completely new experience, had drained her of strength and suddenly weighed upon her like never before. Her head throbbed, her cuts stung, and her unused legs shook with convulsions. Today was going to be very, VERY long.

-----

Lucky for our favorite detectives the portal did open up in the hall just outside Koenma's office. Not so luckily the portal opened up in the CEILING of the hall just outside Koenma's office and Kuwabara, believing what Hiei had said about misdirected portals, shrieked, thinking he had started to fall through space and time. Yusuke jumped in after him (thinking something had gone wrong), Kurama twitched, Botan screamed bloody murder, and Hiei raised an eyebrow.

After a two equally loud "oof!"s it was determined that everything was alright, and the two demons followed, Kurama much more reluctantly than Hiei. Botan clambered down, quite shaken, whacking Kuwabara very hard on the head with her oar and scolding him fiercely for giving her such an unnecessary scare. After few minutes of various "ow"s and "yowch"es and "you fool"s Botan decided that was enough punishment for one incident and turned to Yusuke, who had been watching with all-too-visible glee on his face. "Now listen," she began. "As I told you before Koenma is in an extremely bad mood. I'm telling you: DON'T GET SMART WITH HIM. No names, no immature gags, and no zoning out. What he's about to tell you is extremely important, but he is in no condition to deal with the likes of you right at the moment." She was talking to all of them now. "You got that? No funny business. I'm telling you. If you want to retain your sanity, I suggest you all be very, VERY quiet during this little briefing. Got it?" She didn't have time to get answer because at that very moments the doors to office flew open, revealing a very panicking blue ogre.

"Botan! Detectives! Thank goodness! I didn't know how much longer I could keep Koenma-sir busy-"

Koenma's voice thundered through the building as the prince raged. "FINALLY! IT'S ABOUT TIME! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING?! I THOUGHT YOU BUMBLING IDIOTS WOULD NEVER GET HERE!"

"Why that little-"Yusuke was about to object to their warm welcome when a wise hand clapped itself over his mouth. "Of course Koenma-sir! We know we took our sweet time getting here and we're oh so sorry!" Botan laughed with an amazingly fake smile on her face. "They're here, they're happy to see you, and they're jumping to know what your Graciousness has to tell them!"  
  
"THEY BETTER BE!"

Botan leaned in close to Yusuke. "Please don't be an idiot," she whispered in his ear. Then she gave him a hard shove into the room and bowed herself out. "I'll be going now, Koenma-sir!" she said cheerfully as the remaining Spirit Detectives hurried in. Yusuke looked back at her as she closed the door. His eyes met her forlorn ones as she mouthed the words again. '_Please don't be an idiot._'

They all walked over to their respective chairs and sat down silently as Koenma glared at them and tapped his foot on his desk.

"Now then," he began, eerily quiet, as if he was straining to keep himself under control. "As you know...As I'm **certain** Botan's told you...we, here in the Under World are in the midst of a universal crisis. We're running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Do any of you happen to know why?"

It was clearly a rhetorical question because he did not give them time to answer. "It's because recently we had a breakout at one of our largest and most secure penal facilities. Thousands were killed. Thousands. And the big thing is: there was only one escapee. Only one tried to escape. And she succeeded.

That wouldn't be such an issue if she wasn't so powerful. A few of us know from experience how dangerous she can be, but for others who haven't she is very easily underestimated. There is no way to beat her. No way to surpass that power. And no way to track it with mechanics."

'_Oh come on,_' Yusuke thought to himself. '_Gimme a break. If she's really THAT powerful there has to be some way to track it._' Suddenly he noticed Kurama, who was sitting to his right. The kitsune's head was down, his face contorted in a furious mixture of guilt, shame, and worry. Slowly the human pieced it together. '_Wait...did Koenma say a FEW of us? With the way Kurama's acting...and now that I think about it Hiei's never shown such animosity towards him before...He...knows something._'

"There is, however, a way to track it manually," Koenma continued, oblivious to the small but miraculous intellectual breakthrough Yusuke was having two feet from him. "If you know the right people." At this a small young woman floated through the door, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Long, waist-length, angelic white hair floated around her petite but sensually curved form (she couldn't have been more than 5'3") and her skin was powdered pale tone of light pink. She wore a strapless, moon-colored silk dress beneath a large, six-layer kimono. The first layer of it was completely white, and beneath it faded layers of red, yellow, green, and blue showed through. It was untied about the middle revealing a tiny waist, and was far to big for her, covering her hands where she held them in front of her. Additionally, Yusuke saw, her feet were bear, and hovered above the floor. Her face was calm and beautiful, her ice blue eyes lined by white lashes, but her worry was evident as she spoke in her soft, but relatively deep voice. "You needed me, Koenma-sir?" It was flawless and smooth and washed over the five like a refreshing wave of caressing warmth and sensitive confidence.

"Yes, I did Kugami. These are the four Detectives." Koenma nodded in their direction from his deck. The young woman's face lit up in a lovely smile of relief. "Ah, wonderful," she said cheerily and looked straight at them for the first time. Yusuke found himself blushing, although he didn't know why, and nearly smacked himself for it. Hiei leaned back in his chair, and Kurama looked up for the first time, the same kind of smile gracing his face. Kuwabara shuffled uneasily. It was weird to feel this safe and secure in the presence of somebody he didn't even know. He scratched behind his neck and had the feeling that this girl's smile had just rid him of any displeasure he had been feeling. "Weird..." he mumbled to himself.

Koenma turned to them as well and they all noticed that eve he looked to be in a better mood. "This, gentleman, is Kugami, Goddess of All Light, Purity, Mercy, Happiness, Love and Harmony in the Universe, and Guardian to the Gates of Heaven." She bowed and smiled even more as he introduced her. "'Kuga' for short," she said. "Woah...talk about connections..." Yusuke mumbled under his breath with a small smile.

Koenma went on. "It's her twin sister we're after. Kurami, Goddess of All Darkness, Hatred, Death, Disease, Destruction and Sin, and Gaurdian of Limbo. Again, 'Kura' for short. You see, three weeks ago, by some mysterious force both Kuga and her sister were transformed into humans. This 'regression' of sorts has left both of them extremely weak because, as Goddesses, they previously had no physical limitations to their power. It had the most effect on Kura, however, because she is the more powerful of the two. It left her in a sort of comatose state. Because she is equally more destructive than Kuga my father felt it best for public safety to keep her locked away. But she woke up much sooner than expected. Although she is newly limited by her physical bonds she continues to astound us all with her spiritual prowess. She's escaped and-"

"Used a wormhole to get into the human world," Kuga broke in. "You might've felt a shudder or something when she broke through about a half an hour ago-"

Now it was Yusuke's turn to interrupt. "THAT'S what that was?! Are you kidding me?! And we just LEFT?! She could terrorizing the entire nation right now!"

"She could. But I seriously doubt it," Said Kurama, speaking softly but for the first time since they had left school. "If what Koenma just told us is completely true, she'll be too busy coping with the lasting effects of the comatose, and almost completely spent from the whole 'escaping' business. Kura's quite good at those kinds of things, I'll admit, but she's too rash and violent for her own good. I'm certain she completely disregarded the fact that she's now mortal and spared no expense terrorizing that prison until she was nearly used up. It's not her fault either, I suppose, but she's not used to running out of energy. She's probably struggling just to survive her current state, so we're fine and are all of our friends."

"I'm afraid I don't see what the point was, then, dragging us up here," Hiei snarled, making himself heard as well. "If she's so weak and yet so potentially destructive, why don't we attack her now? There's nothing she'll be able to do."

"Hiei!" Kurama said, coming to the end of his nerves. But, instead, it was Kuwabara who got in Hiei's face.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" he yelled in his partner's face. Hiei, mildly and momentarily surprised at this outburst from Kuwabara instead of Kurama, lost his cool for a minute. "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YOUR HONOR?! YOU'D NEVER ATTACK AN OPPONENT WHEN HE WAS DOWN! HOW THE HELL IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT?!"

But before Hiei could respond, or Kuwabara could continue, they found Kuga in the middle of them, pushing them back into their chairs, away from one another.

"Because he's frightened, Kuwabara. And he has all the right to be." She turned back to Kurama and Yusuke. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid the way everyone is acting is the fault of my sister and I." Kuga looked around at the blank looks she was getting. "Oh dear," she sighed. "Allow me to explain:

As Goddesses, my sister and I have no physical forms. Neither do feelings, as you all know. Well, our physical presence enlivens feelings, so that things that might be petty thoughts turn to words and actions more easily than they regularly would. With time you get used to it, I suppose, but that is not something we have at the moment. Simply being within a hundred mile radius of either of us is enough to make any living thing more emotional than usual. It affects women less than men because of the whole anatomy thing; women's monthly menstrual cycles actively expose them to our presence, so the older a woman is the less affected she'll be. Men are affected more strongly because they never experience such things. Based on global positioning and age, different people are affected by us in different ways. Think of it as Kura and I being two different television stations, and each person as an antenna. Depending on where the antenna is and how old it is it receives us different ways. Teenagers are typically attuned better to Kura's emotions, while small children are better attuned to mine. With adults it all depends.

But returning to the situation at hand, we must all try as hard as possible to keep to ourselves what we think. It will help avoid conflicts such as these."

"Er...yes, indeed," Koenma said awkwardly. "And, Kugami, I'm sure you'll see to it they do."

"Whoa whoa whoa...what? 'See to it'?" Yusuke asked, incredulously.

"Of course," Koenma sighed, exasperated. "Did you not listen to ANYTHING I just said? Kuga is our way of finding Kura. The two are connected: light and shadow; life and death; good and evil. There is no way to possibly have one without having the other. Therefore they are the only things on earth or otherwise that can trace one another. Kuga's also not too bad on the defensive, either. So, yes Yusuke, she'll see to it that you don't do anything really, really stupid."

"But that too has its catches. Although I can trace Kura, we are part of one another. Anything that happens to her affects me as well, however mildly. We are part of one another. Over time, were it allowed, we would eventually become more and more individual as humans, but as we don't have that we are simply two-sides of the same coin. I am her, she is me. So no matter if we find her or not, we can't kill her or I will die as well."

"But aren't you both immortal?" Kurama asked, concerned.

"Well, yes, in a way. And no in another. We are immortal in the sense that we will never age. We will never become ill or die by natural means. It is possible, however, to fatally wound both of us, either by cutting off our heads or ripping out our hearts."

"Well what the hell are we going to do with her then?" Yusuke asked, frustrated. "If we can't kill her then what are our options?"

Koenma sighed, obviously tired. "I have no idea, whatsoever. Just knock her out or something. I'll think on it."

"So Kuga's coming with us?" Kuwabara said.

Koenma smacked his forehead, and spent the next few minutes massaging his temples, his eyes shut. Finally he pressed a button on his desk. An ogre immediately rushed through the doors. "Get them out of my office. PLEASE."

-----

Keiko might not have noticed the girl if it hadn't been for the cat. She had been lost in thought about Yusuke, as usual. Apparently Yusuke, along with Kurama and Kuwabara, had disappeared during second period and not returned. Something was up in Spirit World, she was pretty sure, and she was worried. "I hope nothing's wrong," she sighed to herself, moving her umbrella about uneasily in the rain. "Exams are almost here...I can't afford to go on some mission with Yusuke and them right now..."

It was then the cat decided to dash in front of her. She yelled, startled, and toppled backwards, losing her umbrella. The cat paid her no mind, and darted into the grassy park. "Oh!" Keiko grabbed her umbrella and tried to shake the water off of it before using it to shield herself from the rain. She was already quite wet, and shook herself before looking where the cat had gone. It had been black...wasn't that supposed to be bad luck in Western countries or something? Nevertheless she followed it, curious as to where it was off to in such a hurry.

The sight that met her was hardly less startling than the cat itself had been. There had to be at least twenty black cats in the park, all swarming about something sprawled on the ground near the base of one of the park's many cherry trees. Keiko slowly made her way over but was stopped by the cats, all hissing quite defensively. "Shoo!" she said dismissively. "Shoo! All of you! Out now!" One swiped at her with a clawed paw but as a group they began to disperse and back off with her approach.

Finally, they had all gone and she could see their focus of interest. In front of her lay the body of a young woman, with long dark gray hair and tan skin in a thoroughly wet, white nightgown. Her eyes were closed as if she had fainted. "Oh..." Keiko said, eyes wide. She knelt and laid her hand gently on the girl's neck, checking for pulse. It was there, but just barely. She got the girl in her arms gently and picked her up, fixing her umbrella and book bag in the crook of her elbow. She had to get her medical help and quickly. "Yukina..." she said quietly. Yes, that was right. Genkai's shrine was only a few blocks away. She could take her there and have Yukina fix this girl up.

One of the cats let out a mewl of protest and began following Keiko down the road as she walked. "Shoo," she said gently. "Don't follow me." But it continued to pad behind her, its little feet making ripples in the puddles as it followed her. Keiko looked at. The poor thing was thoroughly soaked and it did not look half ready to 'shoo'.

Keiko sighed and came to a stop. "At least get under the umbrella then." The little thing hesitated. "Come on," Keiko said again. Slowly the cat walked through the puddles until it was right at Keiko's ankles, and it looked up at her as if to ask permission. She smiled, and it gave a pleasant little 'meow' and they walked on until they reached Genkai's shrine.

----

Kura moved her fingers to make sure they were there. Everything in her body felt numb and it sent uncomfortable pangs ringing through her arms to move her hands. Her head throbbed with an unpleasant ache and her eyes were so heavy. Light...she could feel it. She slowly, painfully lifted a hand and placed it over her eyes, and opened them with difficulty. Uncovering her eyes she found herself staring at a low ceiling. Someone...Something had brought her here. "Uhn..." she groaned softly, clenching her teeth behind pursed lips and closing her eyes tight against the pain of sitting up. She pressed her hand into the mat on which she was laying, and grabbed instinctively for the obsidian cross about her neck. She felt it, its cool shape and relaxed slightly as the Pain ebbed away. Her power must be coming back. Right on schedule.

She looked down at herself: whoever had brought her here had taken off her nightgown (and dried it; it was sitting, a lonely lump, in the corner) and dressed her in a large khaki t-shirt and a pair of white leggings, and put bandages on her head and her hand. Her hair was still down to her relief, but no longer wet, and apparently combed. The mewling from the doorway diverted her attention, however. She slowly turned her head to face her visitor: a small black cat with large ears and golden eyes watched her carefully, its tail swishing back and forth, back and forth. Kura slowly extended her bandaged hand with a small smirk. The cat padded up and purred as it rubbed its whiskers against her outstretched palm. "Ah, Circe. I thought you might find me."

"Oh good. You're awake," came a small, soft voice from the corridor. A young woman with a small smile and light blue hair stood outside the doorway, a well-folded pile of clothes balanced in her hands. "My friend Keiko found you in the park. I changed you're clothes and bandaged you up. I hope that's alright."

Kura turned on her fake charm. "Oh yes. Yes of course. Thankyou very much." The blue-haired girl smiled a little wider. It was far too sweet for Kura's liking.

"My name's Yukina by the way." "Deon," Kura said, thinking as quickly as she could. "What a pretty name," Yukina said kindly. "The kitty has been here since Keiko got here with you about twenty minutes ago. I'm quite surprised that you're up so soon." Kura smiled lightly. "Anyway," Yukina said, realizing she still had a pile of clothes in her hands, "you can stay the night if you'd like." She walked away leaving Kura and a silent cat alone.

The black cat clambered on to Kura's lap and curled up. She stroked it softly, thinking. "My Circe, it's quite a predicament you've gotten me into." The cat purred. "You do realize we can't stay here? They'll find us both if we do." Silence.

Finally the cat's tail twitched and it spoke in quite smooth human dialect. "Well one night isn't that long, Mistress, should it not be too bold of this one to say," she purred in a pretty French accent.

Kura scratched gently behind the small cat's large ears, staring off into space, and Circe closed her eyes with the pleasure of it. "It's long enough for Koenma's Idiot Brigade to find us. And I don't like being caught off guard like that. I'm tired of running for today, but have no information on the brat's cronies. Enma is no worry; he's far too stupid to meddle in the human world. It's those 'Spirit Detectives' that cause me mild distress." She looked down at the cat in her lap as she spoke. "But taking hostages is always easy and effective. I want information on them, my Circe. Bring it to me. Bring me information on them all...what they fear losing...what they desire to protect most. I want a full report in less than an hour."

The cat left her lap with a purr. "This one will retrieve it Mistress," she said, bowing herself out of the room.

"Make haste, my Circe. Make great haste."

-----

Yusuke walked through the streets in the direction of his mother's house. He had recently gotten his own apartment, but he wasn't yet accustomed to calling it home, and it was an absent-minded sort of walk, anyways. He was so engrossed in his own thoughts he was on auto-pilot, going to the place he had called home since he was old enough to talk. Kurama, Kugami, and Kuwabara walked with him, also too lost in themselves to really know or care where they were or where they were headed. Even Kuga was completely silent. Eventually Kuwabara split off from them with a half-hearted "see yuh tonight" and a wave, and Yusuke only half noticed that he automatically returned it. Hiei had left them earlier to go wait for nightfall in his tree. (Kugami had told them while on the way back from Koenma's that it Kura would be easiest to find at night when her strength had started to return, and they all planned to meet up in the park at around 9 PM to see if they could find her. Meanwhile they were to go home and catch what sleep they could, as there was no guarantee they would get any that night.)

Yusuke, as was traditional, finally broke the silence. "So where're you gunna stay, Kuga?"

"What's that?" she said gently, suddenly finding herself.

"Where're you going to stay? You know, just in case we don't find her. You gotta have somewhere to go. It's not safe, very less normal for some pretty girl who floats to just wander around the city all day."

"I suppose you're right, Yusuke. But I must say, if we don't find her tonight that might be the end of it."

"The end of what?"

"Everything," Kurama said quietly. "Everything and everyone. This is our one chance. If we're going to find her, it will be tonight. Otherwise she'll find us...and trust me, you do not want that to happen."

They were hushed for a moment. It was then that Yusuke snapped, at last.

"Okay Kurama, I'm gunna ask you nicely: How the hell do you know so much about this girl?"

"What?" Kurama looked up, surprised.

"Look I may be human, but I'm not the world's biggest idiot, okay? So don't treat me like I am. I know when people are holding out on me and I really hate it. It makes me feel like I'm a little kid. And I'm not. So just tell me: what do you know that I haven't been told? What does **HIEI of all people** know, that I don't?!"

Somehow in the midst of this, Yusuke had gotten hold of Kurama's collar, and his friend looked at him with composed amusement. "It's not like you to be jealous of Hiei," he said gently. "It's usually the other way around. Just settle down, and I'll tell you, if you want to know so very badly." Kuga who'd looked very distressed since the beginning of this little out burst, relaxed as Yusuke gently let go of his friend's collar, and then looked down, as if to kick himself for shame. "Look, I'm sorry...that just...came out. I just..."

"I know Yusuke. None of us are truly up for games right now." Kurama said, his eyes pleasantly forgiving. "It's alright." He turned his head to look up the street once. "However, this is not the place to discuss what it is you'd like to know," he said, nearly whispering, his eyes narrowed. "There are reasons I haven't spoken the truth to anyone...and those reasons could easily get us all in big trouble if we're careless." He turned back to Yusuke and took him by the wrist. "My house is the most secure place I can think of at the moment...we can discuss the matter there." The red head looked down at Kuga. "You ought to come with me as well. Yusuke's right on you needing a place to stay, whether we find her or not, and my home is yours as long as that's all right." Kuga nodded quickly. "Of course."

"And I'm afraid you may need a new set of clothing," he said, eying the silk dress and kimono. "Something a little " Kugami looked down it, blinking, obviously confused. "Oh!" she exclaimed as it finally clicked. "I suppose you're right. Mortals don't wear things like this very often, do they? Um...okay...I think I know what you mean...just a second..." She lifted her right hand to a chain around her neck and brought out a pearl cross-shaped pendant on a silver chain. She closed her eyes and after a few seconds a brilliant white glow enveloped her body. Three seconds passed before the light vanished completely without a trace, and Kuga stood in front of them, clothed in a girl's high school uniform, her long white hair in a loose bun. "Like this?" she asked, checking herself. "Yes," Kurama nodded with a small smile. "Quite good for a first try." Yusuke just stared for a moment before saying anything.

"Whoa."

-----

They got there quickly. Kuga finally set her feet on the ground and walked in to the house placing a small, nearly invisible piece of paper below the door handle before closing it securely behind the three of them. Kurama thought up a quick lie to tell his mother and stepfather ("Friends from school...you remember Yusuke right? And this is Kugami, she's new. We were assigned a group science project today, is it alright if we work on it in my room?") as Kuga and Yusuke took their shoes off in the entrance way, and then hurried them upstairs. He checked behind them carefully, his sharp eyes searching the empty hallway fervently before closing the door behind them.

"Now then," he said, leaning his back against the door, "What is it you wanted to ask me?" Yusuke sat himself backwards on a computer chair, and looked the demon straight in the face. "I want to know what you know about Kurami."

Kurama folded his arms across his chest and stared off into space. "Ah yes...I remember. Well...where to begin is the question...alright. I think I know where to start our frightful tale. Feel free to interrupt when you feel it necessary.

Now then...what do I have to do with Kura, you ask? Far too much. Let us go back. Far back. Before you. Before Suiichi, the human me. Let us go back to the time when I was Yoko. And just Yoko. Not Yoko, the Demon Thief. Just Yoko. And not all too much older than I am as a human, either. Kura and Kuga were around then. And far before then. But to know what I have to do with them both, we might as well just stick to my story. And here it is.

At the time we speak of, I had nothing but potential. I was a parentless demon child without any sort of power. It was at that time that a plague enveloped the land. So few of us survived, there may have been as many as three survivors out of every 20,000 who became infected. I was so lucky to be one of them. I lived, against astronomical odds, and in doing so I passed Kura's first test. And that's just what it was...a test. The Goddess of Death had tested us all, and in doing so, she had singled out those of us who she wished to reward.

One day the plague just stopped. Those who had been infected miraculously came back as if nothing had happened. The Makai boomed once more with life. And everything appeared to be alright. However, it was far too late for those of us who had actually survived the plague while it was active. We had been singled out just long enough for Kura to figure out who we were. And we were never alone. Her spies are everywhere and always have been. She knew all of our names and our locations at any time, and she called us all out eventually. She explained to us that we had potential to be the most powerful of warriors and invited us all to train with her. Those of us who refused were killed. Immediately. No questions asked.

I agreed to it however. Training by one of the Eight Goddesses was an unheard of privilege, and I had no reason to resist. I was the first of three to agree to it. And train we did. I became stronger with each day, consumed by the desire to become the most powerful demon ever. It was difficult and at first I thought my spirit might break along with my bones, but that feeling faded with time. Five years passed and eventually I was the only one who continued to practice. Kura told me I was the only one with the capacity to get any stronger, and indeed I was. I was twice as powerful as my other teammates, a young female cat demon named Circe, and a male demon named Toketsu with a talent for summoning dragons. She told the two of them to try to become stronger by testing their powers on others, and sent them off to who knows where. In the end only Circe returned. Truly we have no idea what became of Toketsu, but a rumor reached us that he had attempted to create an empire in the East by overtaking villages and had been killed in a mutiny by his own subjects.

In that time when Circe and Toketsu had been absent, Kura's training became all the more rigorous. We worked specifically on my talent with plants and ended up learning one another's techniques. She was my master, and I was her pupil. In that time we gradually began to trust one another...a huge thing to consider seeing as to what we both were. She relied on me and I relied on her. We made the perfect team in all types of combat just because we knew each other so well. But after Circe's return...well, Kura allowed me to go search for Toketsu. After searching for months and finding nothing, I began to lose focus. I ran low on supplies and started stealing because I had to. With no one to give me a significant challenge I began stealing just for the confrontation of it and gradually forgot my original mission all together. But with that I also forgot that Kura's spies always kept there eyes on me. It was a while until I figured out that Circe had been told to follow me everywhere I went. (As a cat demon, she inhibits the ability to change into a cat at will.) For the first time, Kura's ease at controlling me angered me...frustrated me. She had such power...power I knew I could never compete with. That scared me. And so I began to consciously ignore it. I pretended that I did not recognize Circe as anything but a black cat. I refused to respond to any of Kura attempts to contact me. I blocked her existence out of my mind out altogether.

This angered Kura beyond all imagining. I had betrayed her in a way she had not predicted and it did more than aggravate her...it ENRAGED her. The depths of her anger were unfathomable. And eventually she came after me. Her plan was obviously to kill me for my ignorance, but she stopped before the fatal blow was struck. I have no idea what stopped her...by all accounts I should've died that day. But something held her back. She let me live, but she cut me off just as I had her. During my last year alive in the Makai, I became famous for my burglary expertise, but had no contact with her whatsoever. Circe continued to follow me, but I believe it was only companionship she sought. She would change back every once and a while in my presence so I know Kura hadn't ordered her to follow me. It was a pained existence, in a way. My stealing had turned into one of the only ways I could rebel against her, and now that she would have nothing to do with me I was just...stealing. Ultimately it got the better of me, and, as you know, I was struck down in the midst of a burglary. I escaped here...and I nearly forgot about Kura. Nearly.

Since her reappearance as a human her spies have been everywhere. They come in all shapes and size: crows, cats, butterflies, stray animals of all kinds, even demons. But I can recognize them. They're keeping an eye on me because their Mistress is so weak and they don't know what else to do. They want to make sure I don't sing. I know too much about Kurami to be safe. What they don't know is that Kura treated us all for such things. The food that we ate while under her 'care' (if you can call it that) would've been poisonous to any human that could've eaten it. It was cursed, designed to nourish us while still affecting us. It made us unable to talk about her to or in the presence of anyone who was not one of her pupils. Over time the power of it has worn off and I can talk about my past with her freely. I can't reveal anything about her powers, however. That part of the curse will work until who knows when. So that's all I can tell you. Hiei probably learned by word of mouth if you must know. He doesn't like to think he cares about gossip but he listens. Word gets around against impossible odds, you know."

Yusuke, who had just been sitting in his chair for this lengthy speech finally said something. "So you didn't tell Hiei?" Kurama shook his head slowly. "No. I didn't. Although I did just tell you."

Yusuke blinked for a while. Kuga watched them both from her place on Kurama's bed, a calm but sad look on her face. Yusuke finally looked up at Kurama, who stared back at him from beneath bushy red bangs. Yusuke turned to stare out the window, gripping the chair with uneasy gratitude.

"Okay," he said softly. "Thankyou. Thankyou Kurama."

And so thankful was he that he did not really look out the window. And as such he did not really see the small black cat with large ears and yellow eyes watching from beneath the leaves of the tree outside as the sun sank into the horizon.

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Uh...well that whole "Kurama's explanation" thing took a whole lot longer than I suspected so I guess I'll end it here. HA HA! Suckers. You'll just have to wait until I have more time. Poor you. Review or die. Love you all. Kind of.


	3. Preparations

**Yohko's Note to the General Public:**

Wow. New chapter already. Ain't you loved and lucky. The more reviews I get, the quicker I'll be. Doesn't matter if they're positive or not...just review! I'm going to say this once and I probably never will again, but I love you guys. And I'll love you even more if you REVIEW. Thankyou, that'll be all. Oh, and something to remember: I have my own spellings for the words "thankyou" and "atleast". You think of them as two words and I don't want to hear about it. That's just the way I do things. Its like part of my signature. If you must know it because I've done it forever. I've never seen any good reason to split them into two words. So get over it.

PS: Ze Yohko eeza nota ownin YuYuHakusho, yah. She eez, howevah a ownin of ze Kura and a Kuga.

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**Installment the Third : Preparations**

They all ended up getting to the park around seven. Hiei, of course, had been there since they got back, high in a tree sleeping amongst the leaves. For some reason he had found no obligation to have to go back to the one he had adopted as his own and then have to come all the way back to the park. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuga arrived as group, Yusuke seating himself on a park bench while Kurama and Kuga stood a few feet away, engaged in a quiet conversation tha tYusuke had been very careful not to take part in. The Spirit Detective felt unreasonably tired for some reason, as if Kurama's explination had been something fearsome he had been forced to endure. He knew plenty well this was all his own fault, but wasn't all too happy or willing to admit it at the moment. He sighed and let his head fall back, trying to take in all that had been said in the past few hours. But it was more difficult than he expected and eventually he gave it up, simply basking in the fading sunlight and drawing in all the sounds and smells from around him. Kuwabara got there in a few minutes and sat down beside Yusuke with a small "hey" and an unusual silence and lack of confidence surrounding him. Yusuke barely acknowledged his presence except for a muffled "mph", and then sunk back into the bliss he had been enjoying. Botan was the last to arrive, floating in on her oar graceful, silent and slow, as if it might be the last time she ever did it.

Yusuke lifted his head with a scowl and a sigh, and looked up at Hiei who hadn't moved a muscle since they'd been there. "Hey Hiei. Wake up get down here if you're coming. You don't, and I'll call the fire department, have em shoot you down with a hose." This earned him quite a glare from the little demon, who had apparently just been sitting still with his eyes closed. "My aren't you cranky? Too bad for you, cuz so am I. Most days I wouldn't mind so much, but just on account of the fact that this might be my last night alive, I really don't have time for it. Get down here on yer own accord or face the men in red coats. What's it gunna be?" Hiei rolled off his perch, and landed feet first, agitated. "Watch you're mouth, Detective," a spiteful Hiei growled. "I don't suggest you say things so hastily unless you've got a plan you'd like to grace us with. I, for one, am not in the mood for your insolent tongue, so do it a favor and stop working it so hard towards the impossible goal of saying something worth listening to. Otherwise, you might just find it missing."

"Please, no more arguing," Kuga pleaded. "Yes, Kuga's right," agreed Botan. "We have far too much to worry over already besides the two of you strangling one another. Just let it go. We're all a bit standoffish at the moment. Calm yourselves down. There are more important things at hand than which of you is more arrogant than the other."

"I think its a tie," came a familiar voice. Yusuke looked over at the entrance where Keiko stood, her hands behind her back. "I am NOT arrogant," Yusuke said with frown. "See?" Keiko said peering at Botan. Botan nodded and gave a nervous laugh. Keiko's small smile faded quickly. "It's getting late, you know. What're you all doing here?" she asked with worried eyes. "It'd take too long to explain it all," Yusuke answered uncomfortably. "Let's just say we're waiting to catch something and whether we do or not could mean the fate of this world and the next."

Keiko stood there for a moment and looked at him. "Doesn't sound too difficult or out of the ordinary for you guys," she said. She cast her eyes to the ground and after a minute or so of silence she walked passed the park. "WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Yusuke hollered down the street. "Genkai's," she called back over her shoulder. "I only came this way because I heard you and Hiei yelling at each other."

"WE WEREN'T YELLING!" he shouted after her, but she either ignored him or didn't hear him. Yusuke finally "hrumph"ed and muttered something about girls before planting himself once again on the park bench, pouting and slumped foreward. Kuwabara finally seemed to wake up and tried to stifle his laughter, disguising it as a series of loud snorts and chuckles under his breath. Yusuke whacked him in the stomach.

Kuga stared after Keiko with a sleepy kind of curiosity, the kind you might see in a very small child. After a short while she turned to Yusuke and then back to the street, a puzzled frown on her face. "Keiko, hm?" she pondered to herself, quiet but still so everyone could hear. "I wonder..." She suddenly shook her head vigorously as if she was trying to rid herself of an ear. "It can't be. This whole 'physical' thing must be getting to me more than I thought."

"What's that?" Yusuke said looking up from a death glare contest he'd been having with Kuwabara. Kuga looked down at him with a small smile. "Oh nothing. Crazy thoughts is all. Anyhow—"she said quickly, looking up at Botan. "everyone is here correct? We can get started then."

"Started? With what?" Kuwabara said anxiously, hoping to God it wouldn't have anything to do with him.

"Finding Kura, of course. That IS what we're here for. Now...who is it that has the best spiritual awareness out of all of you?"

All eyes turned to Kuwabara. "What? Wait...NO. I don't wanna—" the red head quivered.

"Calm _down_. It's alright," Kuga said, taking a gentle but firm hold on Kuwabara and dragging him to a spot directly in the center of three blossoming cherry trees. "Okay, now can you see the North Star from here?" Kuwabara, still jittery and nervous squinted into the hazy night sky. The sun had JUST disappeared over the horizon and it was still rather light. But still: "Yeah...barely, but it's still there."

"Good, that'll make my job a little easier. The North Star is the portal to the Afterlife, you see. It can be seen from anywhere on Earth at any time of the year. The easier it is to find the more power I can tap into...atleast while I'm human," Kuga explained. "If we can't see it that means the portal is closed or backed up, and it's harder to tap into my powers, and my link to Kura. You see where this is going?" Kuwabara nodded. He was human, not stupid.

"So what do we do?" Yusuke asked, apprehensive and ready to do some good ol' fashioned ass-wuppin.

"What do I do," Kuga corrected. "We try to make a good solid connection with the Afterlife Power Basin...the APB. It's what's limiting my (and Kura's) resources. It's what's holding us back. So, it takes a certain amount of effort to bore a hole in it big enough to accurately tap into our power. The APB is so infinite such holes have no affect on its capacity or its ability to contain our powers. However, such holes DO leave behind traces of themselves. With the right aim and connection I'll be able to find holes that Kura's made recently."

"How'll that help?" Hiei broke in, irritably. "Just because we know WHEN she tapped into it doesn't mean we know where!"

"Yes we do. You didn't let me finish. The APB is so infinitely large that its scope is equal to the space of Heaven, the Underworld, and the Mortal Plane combined. Therefore, wherever the hole is made is where the power is used. So we WILL know Kura's last location, if I can tap in the APB correctly. Its all a matter of luck."

Circe had wandered back to her master, upset, confused and deep in thought. Yohko was alive...Yohko was ALIVE! How could that be? Kura had said he was dead...she had lied? Yes, that made perfect sense now that she heard his story. Kura had wanted her to avoid Yohko at all costs. What better way to do that than to say he was dead? But it wasn't like Kura not to finish such a job...even when it WAS dealing with her own students. Still, she had definitely liked Yohko. REALLY liked him. And he had betrayed her...that's gotta be hard on the heart. But she wouldn't tell Kura what she had learned on that topic. She would only blab what she needed to, nothing more. Circe was very good at shutting up at the right times, a skill that would become very valuable very, very quickly.

When the little black cat arrived on the premises she noticed the Ice Maiden that had called herself Yukina before. It seemed odd to Circe, as she made her way inside, that such a young Ice Maiden would be living all by herself. There must be someone else guarding this shrine, she supposed. Someone very powerful.

Circe found Kura sleeping inside, slumped against the wall, dressed in something obviously of her own creation: a small black dress caressed her form, with thigh-high black socks and an oversized dark jacket. Two biking gloves graced her spidery hands, and four silver bracelets made their presence known from where they jangled on her left wrist. A small black, silver-studded choker constricted her neck and the same type of belt hung, loose and lobsided, on her waist. Her head was propped up on her knees and the cross pendant was clutched in her right hand, her dark hair spreading every which way. Circe wriggled her way into Kura's chest and began licking her face in order to try and wake her up. It worked, in a sort of way. Kura woke up, but not really. She was far to spent from trying to make herself clothing as well as the escape, and only fluttered her eyelids for a while before shutting them and ignoring Circe's exhistance completely.

Yukina came in as the light disappeared from outside and spotted Circe. Her eyes went from cat to master and a puzzled look came over her face. '_That's strange...she must have had other clothes with her. I know those aren't the ones she came in or the ones I gave her...how odd._'

When Kura finally did wake up it was with sincere reluctance. She blinked her eyes open and looked down at Circe, curled up on her lap. Relaxing her knees so they straightened onto the floor, she used the wall to prop herself up, cracking her sore joints as she went. Her movement woke Circe and the cats big eyes met her own, and they just sat there staring at one another for a moment or two. Only when they were certain Yukina was out of earshot did Circe speak.

"Mistress," she mewed. Kura gave a faint smirk and rubbed the cat behind her ears. "ooh...!" Circe purred. "Who are they Circe?" Kura said quietly. "Morons all of them, as you supposed. A human named Kuwabara Kazuma with no apparent valuable capabilities; two half-bred demons, one who's half human and half who knows what other rubbish named Urameshi Yusuke, the other is a runty ice fire demon cross under the protection of the Jagan (what he's called I'm not quite sure); the last is a demon I cannot classify, the brains of the group, who calls himself Kurama."

"Koenma arranged to have my sister assist them, did he?"

"But of course, Mistress."

"They'll be on my trail then."

"Indeed Mistress."

"Is there anything else we know?"

"Yes. The Urameshi fellow is seemingly the leader and very close to two people we have very close at hand."

"The Yukina..."

"Yes. And even more so to the young lady to whom we owe the honor of being in this shrine in the first place."

"Fascinating," Kura sneered. "So we already have two easily accessible and equally feeble hostages at our fingertips. Perfect. Absolutely perfect."

A sudden knock at the door called Yukina from the back of the house. She hurried forward, past the room where Kura and Circe sat, watching. She opened it gently to reveal a young teenage girl with brown hair. "Keiko!" Yukina exclaimed happily. "How are you?"

"Just about the same as I was two hours ago, Yukina," Keiko giggled. "And how's our friend?"

"Much better than you, I assure," came a silky voice from behind them. They turned to see Kura smirking at them from the doorway to the room she had been resting in. The black cat at her feet purred in amusement.

"Deon—" Yukina started, her voice calm but questioning.

"Kurami. Kura for short." She raised her hand, fingers spread, to aim at the two girls, a malicious smirk still filling her face with violent glee. "I suppose I must thank you for bringing me here. In fact, if you had left in the park those idiot Detectives might have caught me."

Keiko gasped, fear suddenly springing to her pale face. "It you! You're the one their looking for! You're that thing that could destroy the world!!"

"So true." Kura was really enjoying this. "And you're so much more helpful than you know. You see, I'm just not feeling like myself lately, and I could be easier prey for those fools than I like to think about. But you see...you two make it so I don't have to worry about that."

"And we thought it was perfect before," Circe purred, delighted.

Genkai had been out all day. Her faded gray-pink hair billowed in the slightly cold breeze and she sighed, troubled. She had been urged by Botan to stay the day at Koenma's office in order to help keep things in order. It hadn't been half as easy as it was to say; even SHE of all people was exhausted. And she was worried from the things she'd been hearing. Rumor had it that the Goddesses had gone human and Kura had recently escaped to Earth. Genkai cursed the fates for such luck. "Just what we need," she grumbled to herself. "Kura in the Human World...perfect, just perfect."

She walked up the stairs to the shrine, a relieved smile on her face. It was good to be home, away from that horribly busy office. Suddenly she shivered. The air had turned unreasonably cold. "That's interesting," she mumbled to herself.

"Yukina?" she called into the gloomy darkness. She noticed that there was no moon out tonight, and even so the sky was strangely cloudy. The stars she could see were unusually dim. Her smile faded into a concerned frown. She slid open the door to the part of the shrine that she called home. "Yukina?" she called again. No answer. THAT was frightening in its own rite. The kind-hearted little Ice Maiden always made her presence known one way or another.

Suddenly she felt somewhat of a pinprick at the back of her skull, alerting her of danger. She leapt to the side, avoiding a blast of youki and shielding her face with her hands. Genkai stared into the darkness, watching and listening as hard as she could.

"You've gotten slower Genkai," came a deep, syrupy voice from the darkness. Genkai clenched her teeth and fists. She knew that voice all too well. "What have you done to her Kura? What have you done to Yukina?!"

"Oh never you mind, old woman. She's alive for the moment. Much more valuable that way," dripped the concealed Goddess.

"I should of known you'd resort to such dirty tricks. You're afraid of them aren't you? That's pitiful Kura...that you have to rely on hostages to get you out of a situation where you have a chance of losing. You never were good with that kind of thing."

At once Kura appeared upside down, just above Genkai's head. "Mocking either," she snarled.

The old woman smiled up at Kura. "Go ahead, tap into your power. We all know how much limited control you have. And besides, it'll only lead them right to you."

"Wonderful."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Okay, okay. Yeah, I know its short. I was actually supposed to go further with it, but I'm kind of lost on how to continue from here so I'll just do that in the next chappie. I also have sincere doubts that I'll be on anytime real soon. I've got to focus on school, probably even more so than anyone else. So, for anyone who's actually reading this: be patient. Thanksadoodle.


	4. A Bird in the Hand

Yohko's Note to the General Public:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I took FOREVER to update. Gimme a break. **Be happy I'm even updating at all!** Oh, and I'm going to delete the censored version. It's too much of a pain. Please disregard any spelling errors speech-wise... is being an ass. Another oh: Sorry for the repetitive potty-mouthing this episode.

HAPPY FRICKIN NEW YEAR! AND MARDI GRAS! AND VALENTINE'S DAY!

Disclaimer: I don't own YuYuHakusho, although I plan to once I become official Dictator of Earth. Kura and Kuga, however, are entirely mine. Touch em, you die. Its that simple. (Unless of course I've just given you permission to touch em. Different circumstances, different story, got it?)

* * *

**Installment the Fourth : A Bird in the Hand is Worth Nothing in France**

Kuga's amulet glowed a pale, attractive white, illuminating her pale, delicate fingers as she fondled it. She was muttering quick, gentle words in a tongue Yusuke couldn't understand, and her eyes were glassy with concentration. A sudden white light, thin but distinct, flashed between the cross in Kuga's hands and the stars along the horizon and stayed there, wavering ever so slightly. Her words became louder, but it incomprehensible gibberish none of them could grasp, excepting Botan who seemed to understand bits and snippets of it.

With an even brighter and astounding flash, something pulsed between the necklace and the sky and the line stretched ever so tremulously between them shivered hard and unceasingly. And out of the blue a huge voice was speaking, echoing throughout the heavens and earth all at once.

"�����" it said in the same strange, otherworldly language Kuga had been muttering in.

"��������" she responded, her own voice ringing clear and sweet into the warm night.

"������"

And then it was silent. Yusuke glanced about, confused. "Where'd the big voice punk come from" he wondered aloud. Hiei kept himself quiet with difficulty, as Kurama shushed Yusuke himself. Kuwabara looked as if he might pass out from shock and Botan wasn't looking all-too-much better.

The string of light suddenly gave an unbending pulse and Kuga's eyes widened. "No...not there..." she whispered, taken aback. How could Kura have possibly been so close without her knowing? What about...she gasped frightened for Genkai's safety. Did the Master know"Oh no" she groaned softly.

"What" Yusuke yelped, charging in. "What's going on" Kuga said nothing for a minute, then turned to look up at him.

"This is going to be a **long** night."

* * *

They got there as quickly as they possibly could, running all the way. Their footfalls echoed in the walled streets as they slapped against the pavement, going as fast as they possibly could. 

"I can't believe I could've missed her from this distance!" Kuga yelled over the whoosh of air in their ears. Kurama frowned worriedly. '_Neither can I_,' he thought to himself. He should've realized it. He had been getting weird pulsations in the back of his mind since they had gotten home late this afternoon. He had waved them off and taken some Tylenol, dismissing it as a headache, completely disregarding it as familiar. He had felt this sensation whenever he was near Kura ever since the last time he had seen her. Ever since she had left him to live and die as he wished. He should've realized it. He should've known.

"What's the problem?" Hiei hollered over the wind, jogging casually, accommodating for his companions who sprinted, sides heaving, beside him. "We found her didn't we? That's all that matters."

"Because if she's at Genkai's, Yukina and Keiko are also at risk!" Kurama shouted, unable to contain himself any longer.

"Wha-HOLY SHIT!" Yusuke screamed. In the chaos it had totally slipped his mind that Keiko said she had been going to see the small ice demon who had taken up residence at Genkai's Shrine. Putting on a sudden burst of speed, he flew the distance, going neck-and-neck with a just as riled Hiei, who had seemed to recollect the same thing. They both nearly missed the turnoff; Yusuke used one foot to skid into a right turn and the other to retain his balance, and Hiei ricocheted off a wall. Still, neither of them slowed. It was a race for speed now...a sudden race to protect the ones they cared for most.

They dashed up the steps and into the courtyard, not stopping even an instant for breath they no longer had any need for. Without thinking Hiei slashed the oncoming door in two, moving to resheath his katana as he landed but then thinking better of it. In a single movement he brought the sword in front of him, the bandana covering his Jagan fluttering to the floor, the metal of his blade reflecting the light of the street lamps outside. He felt Yusuke come to a halt behind him, Spirit Gun cocked and at the ready. Ignoring the others who showed up seconds later, he scanned the premises in a second's time and found her. Unfortunately, he found her sitting directly above them.

All of Hiei's eyes sprung to the ceiling, searching quickly and frantically for something he already knew was there. Nothing. The shadows were empty. If she had been there once, she was not there now.

* * *

Kura listened to them, hunched within the confines of the wall. She adored old shrines like this. The walls never contained anything...they were always hollow. And, to top it off, the had a great many of thread bare spots, where the wood was so thin it acted like a one-way screen, especially in the dark. It was a perfect set-up: she could watch her prey as much as she could ever want and they would never know where she was. She smirked, fingering the two small stones about her neck. They would never know where their friends were either. Not the way they were searching now. Jagans would never be able to pinpoint her directly. 

She watched as one of the taller boys ("Greasy" she had mentally noted him) looked to the pineapple-headed midget with the Jagan, whom she assumed, with a malicious sort of satisfaction, was the alleged midget Circe had specified earlier. "Got anything Hiei" Greasy said to Runt. Runt shook his head, a look of enormous discontent on his face. "I had something...it vanished."

Greasy scowled and dropped his Spirit Gun stance (one which Kura had instantly recognized) and cupped his hands about his mouth. "HEY, GRANDMA!" he hollered, his booming voice echoing up and down the halls. He dropped his hands to his pants and listened into the silence. Nothing. No response. The shrine was as empty as the wind as far as he knew. He gritted his teeth in frustration. She had to be here...

Kura watched him with an icy sort of deadpan, conveying no emotion, but feeling ultimately satisfied. She shifted her gaze from the two standing foremost in the empty room to her back and glanced over at the other four: a tall boy that was looked surprisingly like a very hairy carrot, and just as appealing; a blue-headed girl with pink eyes, most likely one of the Brat's minions; and...ah yes.

There was, of course, no mistaking her sister. There was, however, the fact that Kugami had a look on her face Kura had never seen, but once: calm anger. '_Anger...Imagine that, hah,_' the Goddess smirked to herself. She was probably the only one who could've achieved such a thing from her sister. She loved the sensation of angering her younger sister, seeing that enraged glint at the back of her pearlescent eyes, and the stiff way she held herself. '_How delightful._' How she wanted to see that rage boil over and dominate Kugami's features...

And then...and then there was Yoko. Her beautiful Yoko. His hair was different, a deep red, and he was built in a slightly different way. But his eyes...there was no mistaking those eyes. Or his face. No, this was Yoko. For certain. Even with its different coloration, his hair still shimmered and fell in the same fashion, and even his green eyes, replacing the familiar golden, conveyed the same brilliant mind...that same rebellious yet endlessly brilliant mind. '_Yoko...my little Yoko, no matter what you do, you cannot hide yourself from me. Even being the magnificent actor and con-artist you are, I know it's you under under that human exterior. You can't fool me, little Yoko. Not anymore..._'

A small rubbing of fur against the skin of her leg coerced Kura and looking away from her thoughts and into Circe's large, glowing yellow eyes. She shook her head lightly, warning the cat demon to lay low until she said otherwise. Her minion blinked and nodded curtly in acknowledgement, clambering lightly over Kura's tan legs in order to peek out of the whole herself. She batted her ears once and then dropped back down to all fours, proceeding to saunter down the narrow corridor between the walls, soft tail wavering over bony hips.

Kura watched her go and glanced back through the screen of the worn wood. She twitched involuntarily, and fingered her hair. She should probably move...she'd been here too long. Her human legs ached painfully from being in such a cramped space for so long...but...she didn't want to move. It would be a foolish error. To move now would mean creating a small and ever-traceable blast of ki, one she couldn't afford. (1) The Runt would sense her before she'd even finished the spell, and (2) her sister would find her. At this close a range, she doubted if even Yoko would have trouble pinpointing her directly and without issue. So she would either have to reveal herself or wait for the imbeciles to move.

She groaned inwardly, cursing the fates. '_Damned karma. I hate waiting._'

* * *

Kugami's gaze swept the shrine thoroughly checking through everything in a mental checklist of hiding places. "Shoot..." she murmured to herself. "This is what happens when I don't see her for centuries at a time. First thing I do when we get her is schedule a family reunion. Shoot shoot shoot..." There was nothing for it. The two of them had been apart far too long...she couldn't even **guess** the places Kura might be able to squeeze into by now. As she put, everyone needed a hobby, and the Goddess of Destruction loved playing with her own body, squeezing it and pushing it into contorted deformities no mortal could've ever dreamed of. Kuga had simply decided, after a while, that, alone as she was, it was probably a good thing Kura's favorite playmate was herself. Now, however, she wasn't quite so sure... 

"Can you sense anything Hiei? Kurama?" she said, concernedly, looking to both of them in turn. "I just _said_ I lost it," Hiei snapped irritably, resheathing his katana and stuffing his hand in his pockets. Kurama simply shook his head. "I know she's here...but other than that..." he glanced downwards. "I'm sorry I can't be better help to you."

"It's fine, Kurama," Kuga sighed, ignoring Hiei.

"No it's not," Yusuke murmured, face ashen and fists balled. "It's not fine. Grandma's lying around here somewhere and not answering me when I yell at her..." He clenched his teeth and spat between them as he continued. "Keiko and Yukina are nowhere to be found...this is **not fine**!" Grandma should've had killed him for knocking down the door and yelling so loudly at this time of night. Keiko should be chewing him out, and his ears should be killing him. Yukina should be sitting quietly in the corner, blushing faintly whenever Kuwabara made an attempt to flirt with her. Hiei should be watching them, steam billowing out of his ears as he fumed about having been flustered by a false alarm and Kurama should be trying to console him so that they were all still alive in the morning. This wasn't fine. This was anything but fine.

Botan put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Yusuke. It'll be okay," she said, consoling him to the best of her ability. She turned to the rest of them. "C'mon everyone, let's go look for the girls, alright? They have to be around here somewhere."

Receiving only nods as acknowledgement, and ignorance from Hiei, the YuYu Gang rustled forwards, peaking around the bend of the door into the corridor cautiously before proceeding deeper into the house. The floorboards creaked beneath them ominously as they glanced the whole place up and down. Yusuke stared down the familiar halls warily, poised to attack whenever necessary. Once they had checked through every room, they reemerged in the parlor. Kuga slumped against the wall, exhaling loudly.

"Ugh...her presence is so blatant...how's your head Kurama?" she sighed gloomily, glancing up at the red headed kitsune.

"Not all too well. To tell you the truth...it's really killing me," he groaned, massaging his forehead.

Yusuke frowned and cast him a worried glance before turning back to Kugami. "Why can't we find her then? If it's so definite that she's here, why can't we find her?"

Kugami had only started to answer when she shuddered suddenly and violently. Kurama jumped forward just as suddenly, as if he had struck through the back with a knife. Both of them went very pale.

"Wha!" Yusuke began as Kurama's hand clapped itself over his mouth and the fox gesticulated quickly for silence. '_What the hell Kurama!_' Yusuke thought violently, conveying each word through his eyes and hurling them at his friend for acting so weird. Hiei, Kuwabara and Botan froze and stared at them both, obeying Kurama's commands for soundlessness.

And then it erupted.

"**ROSE WHIP!**" he shouted, his cry slicing the dead air as his weapon did the wall directly beside them. It fell immediately, it's center support beam cleaved in two, the two halves of it hitting the tatami covered floors with a deafening boom as his teammates watched in utter disbelief. Chalk-white dust filled the air as wall connected with bamboo flooring, shattering into thousands of irreparable pieces. The whip returned to its master like a boomerang, encircling his hand expertly, three of it's thorns glistening softly with blood, the others faded by paint and chalky dust.

And then Yusuke saw her.

"Holy fuck."

She was just sitting there, feet propped up against the shattered remains of what used to be the remains of a wall. The dust was shrouding her, covering most of obviously black clothing and dark grey hair. Her tan chin rested on her knees, which were covered by thigh-high black socks, and her hands (covered in bike gloves) were meshed in front of them, holding her in one of the most uncomfortable positions Yusuke could ever imagine. How did back bend that way...? She looked dead, eyes closed and calm. But as the air cleared of debris, Yusuke could see very clearly that this was not the case.

She blinked once after the night-air had resettled and all eyes were upon her. Blowing absently at a few unruly tresses wafting in her face, she coughed starkly. "Mm. Dusty," she said lightly to herself, as if she had not noticed the Spirit Detective's presence. She released the hold on her knees and straightened up into a more manageable position. She held her gloved hand in front of her face, glowering at them. "Damned karma...figures I'd get trapped in _this_ body of all things. Can't even manage minor spells without completely revealing itself. How utterly bothersome."

Yusuke didn't even see Hiei leave his side before he noticed the small demon rushing their target, katana unsheathed, cloak whipped off and forgotten. In an instant he flared up his aura, channeling his dragon into his sword and he was upon her. "Hiei..." Yusuke barked, desperately, only just know recovering from the shock of finding the Apocalypse hiding within his mentor's parlor wall. The demon ignored him, slashing downward...

into nothing. With a _chink!_ metal sword met plaster and empty air. Hiei, unprepared for the sudden ceasing of motion, flew over the handle of his katana, skidding to a halt using his shoulder as he tumbled head first over the schism in the building and into the next room. He glared back at Kura, crimson orbs flashing with ire as he gritted his teeth, the skin of his bare arm burning from where he had used it as a brake.

"She's fast!" Kuwabara squeaked as they all stared at the Goddess who was leaning casually against the wall. She ignored them, perusing the long shallow cut on her forearm nonchalantly as her burgundy blood dribbled from it slowly, spidery fingers bared like claws in the way she held them.

"Hm..." she murmured to herself, gray slitted eyes flashing as she finally permitted them notice. Or atleast, permitted Kurama notice. The demon gripped his whip more tightly, gaze hard as his eyes narrowed.

"Your aim certainly isn't what it used to be, Yoko darling," she said, her voice constricting them, deep, calm and dark, like everything else they could tell about her. Kurama grimaced gripping his whip, if possible, even tighter. Shifted her cold eyes back to her arm and then lifted it, so that she was staring around it at her former student. "You used to cut so much more deeply. What's the matter?"

She stepped away from the wall, her apathetic movements gentle and flowing as she stared at Kurama. "You wouldn't be...concerned for an old friend's safety perhaps? Heh, how flattering."

With a glitter of her malicious eyes thousands of gooey strings sprang from the floorboards, enveloping them all. It seized their arms and legs, tethering them where they stood, immobile. Thousands of strands wove themselves about Yusuke's arms and legs, binding them, making them useless, and did the same to Botan, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kuga and Kurama. They all writhed feverishly but to no avail. The strings continued to come, and restrict their motion ever more, until breath and blinking were all they could manage. She chuckled cruelly.

"Thankfully, I cannot say I feel similarly for you, sweets," she chortled, looking up at him with icy amusement while controlling the strings like a puppeteer. Her laughter rumbled deeper as she watched Yusuke struggle to get free and retort. She pulled at on of her gray strands tucked lightly behind her ear as she watched him. "What's the matter, dear? Cat got your tongue?"

In an instant, Circe was beside her ankles. Kuwabara realized that he had only blinked and it had appeared there just as she had said it. '_Weird...how'd that cute little kitty get in here?_' It hadn't been there a minute ago, he was sure. Or even a nanosecond ago. Weird...

"Circe," Kura chided, glancing down at her pet. "If you wouldn't mind, I have places to go. And I believe our guests do as well. Would you kindly escort them to their graves for me? I'd do it myself, I really would, but I have to be somewhere by sunrise." The cat purred softly in acknowledgement, as Kura massaged the skin of her ears, and the Goddess smirked fondly. "Good girl."

She stood to go, but was halted by a pinprick at the back of her skull, the red flag in her mind going up at the muffled words of "SPIRIT GUN!" echoing behind her. She leapt out of the way, just in time, Yusuke's blast decimating the ground her feet had just left moments before. She landed on her feet gently, sliding to a halt and giving Greasy's produced carnage a once-over.

"Shit. And that almost hit me too," she said softly, sidling over to give it a better look. "You must be Genkai's boy, eh?" she murmured, glancing back up at him with a slightly curious deadpan. She traced her foot along the edge of the smoldering hole left in the floor, looking down at it. "How funny. She wasn't able to hit me either."

Yusuke's eyes widened at the comment. "No..." he muttered. "What...WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!"

Kura glanced back up at him with slightly raised eyebrows, still pawing at the crater's edge. "I'm not sure what you mean, Detective. Could you possibly put that into greater specifics?"

Yusuke positively glowered. "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?"

Kura shook her head in mock exasperation. "Well, you see, that's the problem. I've done quite alot of things, in my existence. Like I said before-if you were listening-you'd be better off specifying which thing it is that I've done to make you so angry. That way I can fulfill your dying wish and, in excruciating detail, reveal to you '_what I did_.'"

"Cut the bull! Where's Genkai! Yukina and Keiko!"

At this, Kura's face lit up in a smirk that they could almost taste, her eyes curling with it. "Who, them? What, you haven't seen them yet? They're right here" she sneered, tapping at a pair of stones dangling around her neck. "My, you certainly aren't very observant for a Detective. Things have definitely deteriorated since Sensui's age, there's no doubt in my mind. The Brat can't even find simple competence to fill the spot any more. How pitiful."

Hiei's eyes widened as he watched her play at those pebbles about her throat. She couldn't possibly be implying what he thought she was implying...could she? Certainly she couldn't be **that** powerful when she was drained...

"No..." Kurama murmured, his eyes shining in the moonlight.

"Oh yes" said an apparently delighted Kurami. "Little Yoko, I'm sure you recognize the phrase '_take what you can, when you can_'? I simply used a window of opportunity to my advantage. Whether it influences you in any other way than what intended doesn't really matter to me, but I can see already that it's having the desired effects overall."

"Freak-ass! What the hell are you talking about!" Yusuke yelled, swaying dangerously from where he was bound.

Kura stared at him boredly, arms folded across her chest. "You really are a pain in the neck, ain'tcha? Hn. Not such a tough guy as you appear though. **She's** the only one you think knows that, hm? How pitiful. If she's really your 'girlfriend' you ought to spend more time with her rather than skipping class and playing 'Battle Royale', don't you think?"

"Wh-what-"

And then it clicked.

The stones.

Keiko.

Yukina.

"Oh God."

The Goddess smirked ever wider as Kuwabara turned from face to face, trying to decipher what was so outrageous that it had all of them silent.

"...Prove it," Yusuke snarled with determination. "I want proof you aren't shitting me."

"My my, a boy who wants his dimes-worth. Don't we get an awful lot of those Circe?" The cat mewed shortly, filling the brief interval in Kura sadistic comments. "Oh well. I suppose I _will_ have to prove it in order to get you to believe me. How terribly pitiful. You'd think that even Koenma could come up with something better than this whole 'seeing is believing' shitload, but whatever."

Her fingers suddenly sprang to life as a black aura pulsed from them, emanating and surrounding each bony segment, slithering its way over calm, dark skin until it hummed about the jewels making them rattle. Several small detonations surrounded them in quick, unending pops as Kurama's worst fears materialized in front of the Goddess of Death, the silhouetted misty forms of three women frozen still projected from between her hands.

"Yusuke..." Keiko cried out, frozen as she was. Said Detective wrestled madly to break away from the strands affixing to the floor, but in vain. He could not break free.

"No...that's impossible..." Hiei growled, eyes reflecting the image of his younger half sister. "No one could manage that type of power if they were bereft of it..."

The corners of Kura's eyes creased with the wicked grin that danced splay-leggedly across her face as the projected images of Keiko, Yukina and Genkai melted into the darkness. "Well then it's very good that I'm not bereft of it."

She turned to face Yusuke once more, the smile evaporating. "Satisfied? I'll be on my way, then." She made for the door way, pausing to glance back at them all. "Oh, and I suggest you give me a good amount of space. These jewels, the manifestation of your feminine counterpart's souls, tend to be very fragile. You wouldn't want my hand to slip and...oh, I don't know...accidentally break one? That would be so very awful."

She turned back to face the direction she was going and left the room with a quick and absent-minded "Finish them Circe".

Yusuke watched her go, chewing heartily on his lower lip, brimming with frustration. "Damn it..."

The cat Circe watched her Mistress go as well, footsteps fading into shadows as the large rumble of an explosion at the opposite end of the shrine signaled Kura's departure. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh, her taught muscles rippling beneath velvety fur. "Ugh..._oui_. 'Damn it' is right, kid."

With a gentle trembling of aura there was no longer a feline lounging on the floor in front of them. "Hmph...I really am not going to enjoy this," the woman in front of them purred, standing from where she had been knelt upon the boards.

She was taller than Kurama remembered, the dark eyeliner surrounding her violet spheres, which were slitted in a similar fashion to Kura's, thickened substantially. Her skin was extremely pale, nearly as white as Kuga's, and her dark purple hair curled about her high, framed cheekbones. Every part of her glided perfectly into the other, even beneath her clothing: a tight fitting sleeveless ebony mini-blouse with a vampirish, high collar, that hid most of her chin, cut off at the star of her ribs; her navel was just covered by top of a pair of form-fitting shorts with cuffed hems; similar to Kura, a pair of woolen knee-high socks covered her otherwise bare feet; one small silver hoop earring dangled from the left cat ear perched atop her head.

"Look," she said, looking up at them, eyebrows knotted. "I don't wanna kill you. And technically I _can't_ kill Kuga. So I'm gunna le'you down. But you're going to fight me. And summa you are gunna leave, and summa you aren't. I gotta follow orders, and you heard _le mademoiselle_. She wants you dead. So I have to atleast half-ass it, right"

"Wha-"

Yusuke had no more time for thought as the strings binding him, Kuwabara, and Hiei were suddenly cut by Circe's claws as she swiped them in two. Both humans let out a cry and scrambled to land on their feet, hitting the floor with unprepared and stinging toes, protected only by the rubber of street shoes. Hiei, surprised, but prepared, hit the floor in a feline-mimicking crouch, legs bent and sprung upward into a battle ready position in a matter of seconds.

Circe bent her elbows so that both of her hands, held so the palm faced away from her, were positioned in front of her face, left over right, with the latter pointing outward, thumb to her face, and the former pointing outwards. Her fingers curled as glistening nails extended, protruding out about six inches, shimmering like knives in the slatted moonlight that shone in through the window.

"Begin whenever you're ready," she said calmly, face portraying no emotion.

Kuwabara's eyes widened. "B-Begin? To what? Attack you? But...but...you're a-"

"A minion of Kura's and nothing more. If the fact that I'm of the female gender troubles you, Mister Kazuma Kuwabara, you may choose to ignore my chest, although there isn't much _to_ ignore, incase you didn't notice. Now come. We should get this under way."

Yusuke almost started up laughing at the direction this conversation was going, and at the cat-demons fierce deadpan expression as she said all this, but choked it all down. "How the hell do you know his first name?" It was a good question. No one had said he had any more of a name than "Carrot-topped Moron" (which Hiei had called him while they were examining the house), and he was certain that if an occasion was slipping his mind, they certainly hadn't called him by his first name.

"It is amazing what you can learn from the Spirit World archives. Mostly boring stuff, _oui_, but also very valuable information. I hacked in about 16.43 minutes ago and counting."

"But, that was..." Botan said, eyes bulging white. "That was...just as...we arrived!"

"Yes, I thought it more polite to address you all by name, Botan-chan."

"But, the archives! How did you possibly-"

"Look, if one of you doesn't attack me soon, I'm going to need to instigate something," Circe snarled vaguely, turning back to the Detectives. "We can't just keep standing around, 'kay? Either one of you attack me now or I'm going to do it."

Hiei finally broke a long standing silence on his part, unsheathing his katana with god-like quickness and bringing it so that he held it directly in front of him, directly between his eyes. "Gladly," he snapped with a scowl. "It's not as if chivalry on our part is going to get us anywhere."

And with that he launched, feet carrying him unbelievable fast. His hair whipped back as he flew at her, katana drawn back in a preparatory move to slash forward with all of his weight. Circe smiled warmly, glad to have some attention paid her. He was right...chilvary _would_ get them nowhere. But neither would carelessness. This one was going to a regular fire demon; she could see it by the rage and hatred boiling up from within his glinting blood-red eyes. She would need to wear him down...hone him a little and teach him a thing or two about using such careless style against a cat demon of the Nihiki(**1**) clan.

She was ready as he threw himself foreword, every intent to drive the sword through her, and for the second time of the evening, piercing nothing but air. However as Circe continued to lead him forward with a speedily placed left hand on his wrist, and prepared to deal him a blow with the other in crystal slowness (despite the fact that it all took place in a matter of 3 seconds) he was ready.

Ducking the blow by bending backwards, he escaped her premature hold on his wrist and spun backwards on his right heel, taking a lunging swing at her exposed chest.

"Oh!" she exclaimed jutting out of the way just in time. Impressive...he had completely thrown her off guard by feinting that dead-on attack. It wasn't many who could fool her that way...very impressive indeed. Perhaps Hiei Jaganshi was more fit an opponent than Mistress Kura gave him credit for. She smiled warmly, sliding to a halt as both she and the Jagan-wielding Forbidden Child took stance once more. How fun...

"What're you smiling about?" Hiei glowered, eyes hard and narrow.

"Yeah," Yusuke snarled, his own clenched fist glowing blue with the power he has charging. "Somehow, I don't find anything even remotely funny about the situation, especially looking at it from your end. You sure the men in white gave you the right subscription?"

"'Men in'...? Oh, you mean to suggest that I am mentally unstable? I'm quite sane actually. I didn't mean to seem happy about anything...it's just that...I can tell that you two are going to give me Hell. And that sounds like a lot of fun right now!"

"Quite sane my ass..." Yusuke blinked, eye twitching at the girl's happy-go-lucky-attitude.

"Think whatchu want _monsieur_," Circe said nonchalantly, shrugging Yusuke's insidious comments off as if they were nothing. "Strike when you're ready."

Hiei lunged, bringing his blade and swinging it down in front of him at her chest once more. She jumped backwards just as she swung at her feet. With another "oh!" she pulled them up just in time, only to meet in a head-on collision as Yusuke's fist connected with her cheek. Sailing through the air, she tumbled, somersaulting, through empty space where a wall should've been and instead hit the floor. Digging her nails into the boards of the floor, she brought herself to a halt after a fearfully unpleasant screech as she stooped. Standing, and rubbing at a bruising cheek she winced slightly. "Ow. You're definitely Genkai's underling...only _she_ can hit like that. Heh...shoot, that really hurts."

Both young men watched her, Hiei in utter disgust, Yusuke in plain-and-simple disbelief. How can one of Kura's minions be so...happy? It's like she **enjoyed** getting pummeled. "God...what a weirdo," Kuwabara uttered in a low voice from behind them both, mouth slightly agape.

Circe blinked and then sighed. "How is going to take me to train you into just attacking me and not giving me random intervals to recover? This is getting boring."

"I'll show you BORING!" Yusuke hollered, fed up, and charged her. "I'LL SHOW YUH BORING 'TILL YOU DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY IS UP!" Both of his clenched and raised fists glowed dangerously, as he dashed towards her.

"Good! That's better!" she giggled happily, blocking his fist as it smacked up against her palm.

Endlessly frustrated, Yusuke continued punching with everything he had. Punching punching punching punching, had to keep punching. He aimed for nothing, attempting everywhere - anywhere - but with each blow it seemed she only became more prepared for the next, no matter how randomly it's placing. No matter how fast he went, no matter what he did, he hit nothing but hands that were raised to stop him. He was getting extremely frustrated. It had only been minutes and a few attacks since they'd begun and already this nutty cat-thing had mocked him...twice. And he had only hit her once. This was so stupid! Why couldn't he hit her? She couldn't be that powerful. Kuwabara hadn't even known she was there.

Well...but then, Kuwabara hadn't known Kura was there, either.

Suddenly Yusuke encountered more than a blocking hand. Instead, he found his fist locked against a knee, leaving Circe's left hand free for attack. Caught off guard, Yusuke jumped backwards just in time to avoid a full on blow to the gut, but felt it as the cat-demon released a powerful blast that sent him tumbling into the next room and crashing into the opposite wall. Immediately, he was pinned by one hand at his collar and knee in his ribs as two claws introduced themselves to his cheek. He yelled, more out of surprise than anything else, and was tossed by the wrist into the floorboards, his nose exploding in pain as he hit them.

Hiei was suddenly above him, launching off of the spot of wall the Spirit Detective had just fallen from, sword at the ready. He drove forward with it, intending to spear her as he had caught her unaware, but she flipped her head backwards, bending her spine back as quickly as was humanly possible in order to avoid the blade that split the air just above her. She winced slightly and flipped to the right over her shoulder, just in time to avoid it as it came down. However, it was the Forbidden Child that was now vulnerable, and she doubled him over with a quick jab of the foot to the stomach, and he flew back, hitting the wall and then slumping onto the floor.

She got to her feet, a disgusted sort of look settling upon her cheeks, and brushed herself off. "Whew! You guys are tough," she said, finally, looking at Yusuke who glared up at her from the floor. "Oh, c'mon, don' be like that. It's not as if I'm going to attack you while you're in that position." She extended a pliable hand to him from above, claws withdrawing. "C'mon. We got punches to throw."

Yusuke stared at her incredulously.

She stared back down at him. "Hey, don' gimme tha look. I ain't **heartless** you know."

For the first time in a long while, Kuga's voice skittered into the midst of things. "Circe...won't you...you'll be in such trouble if you do this..."

"Don't you dare get thankful on me, Second Mistress," Circe snapped, suddenly all business. "You'll need that anger when you catch up to her." Her hard gaze shifted to Kurama as violet eyes met sharp green ones. "...You...you either...Yoko...Yoko, sir." Her eyes wavered ever so slightly, and she cast them downwards once more, shading them halfway with darkly dressed lids. "You two...you two are the only ones who can make sure she...doesn't do anything..._irrational_. I have tried my best but...that oath...that oath when we swore her our loyalty...do you remember that Yoko, sir? We swore we would never abandon her, that we would have faith and never betray her 'til our ends...I can not forget it. I can not leave her even after all these many years. If I did...I..."

"You would no longer have any reason to live, would you Circe?" Kurama's soft, sympathetic tones caused everyone to turn and stare at him, his deep, burgundy bangs over shadowing his eyes. Circe closed her eyes completely, nodding slowly and with great sadness.

"You...don't have anything else...but Kura, anymore. You're a good person...I know that but...you have alot of trouble living...simply for the sake of living...don't you? You can't live...for just yourself. Can you, Circe? If you're all alone...you simply can't find a reason to go on. You need someone who...needs you...even if its such a subtle thing as being Kura's underling. I know that about you Circe. I've always known that. That's why you...continued following me, wasn't it? Those last years in the demon world...I was all alone except for my band and...you..."

Circe squeezed her eyes tight as if they might spill all of their fleshy contents.

"You followed me all that time...I told myself I didn't care but...you were my friend. A person I could trust. It gave me a reason to keep going, your trust. Knowing that there was someone in this world who trusted me...who I could help. I liked knowing that I didn't even really have to do anything about it...that you would be fine so long as we had our brief little chats here and there."

"Yes," Kuga said, eyes misty and warm. "You two had each other. Having each other...even if you didn't really understand one another...you liked each other's company simply because it was another's company."

"_Oui_…it wasn't much, but it was enough. Kura was so easily annoyed those days…even Nira and Neru thought it best to avoid her. They left without telling me where they were going and, even back then, I wouldn't have been tempted to follow them. We didn't – don't – get along. So…for that length of time…I was all alone. I couldn't take that loneliness, that bereft feeling. Kura's become like family to me…without her…if I lost her, I'd just want to die. I know she can seem evil at times but…even knowing that…even accepting that, I can't give her up. I simply can't. And you, Yoko-sir…I don't think I could survive without you either. You kept me alive all through those months, until I could get up the nerve to go back to my Mistress. And I think you two…I couldn't think that you two would hate each other! I just couldn't! All those years that we spent together…all those memories…certainly, it wasn't the easiest of times, and Mistress Kura wasn't the easiest of masters but…she loved us all! She really did! Not like normal people but…Yoko-sir, she was so distraught when you left us. And I knew you felt it too. You simply wanted freedom…you both had a naturally rebellious nature. I knew you two had never really meant to war with one another…but you're both so stubborn. Neither would apologize because…both refused to apologize because both maintained that they had done nothing to spite the other.

"You don't really hate her do you, Yoko-sir? You don't…I could see it in your eyes from the moment you first got here. When you were talking about her earlier this afternoon…you knew I was watching. You pretended you didn't but…I could tell. You don't hate our Mistress…my Mistress, now, I suppose. But, you don't, do you? You can't just throw her away as if she meant nothing to you. As if…Toketsu and I meant nothing to you. Can you? I know you, Yoko-sir. Your heart won't let you forget, will it? Even after all this time…she's still something to you. A relic you and I both used to cherish as one of the only things we belonged to in the world…that belonged to us.

"She was the first one to tell us that we were worth anything. A simple tap to the cheek and we were meant something. Things that Kura did for us as her pupils…little pointless things that no one else would've accepted as anything worth anything…meant the world to us all. They gave us a reason to live, to become stronger. Even if we had to do everything she said without asking questions…no matter how dark her heart truly was…she adopted us as her own. In truth, she raised us, and molded our souls to the state they are in today. Even if she doesn't seem like the type, you and I both know that she loved us in her own special ways. She protected us from things she heartlessly exposed others to. That is a type of affection, a way of warmth in the heart. Those simple, rare shows of affection…they were enough to keep us all going. Enough to make us _want_ the power she was willing to teach us.

"I know you say you don't like her know, Yoko-sir…but…you still love her, in your own way, don't you? You still can't bring yourself to abandon her and all that she taught you, can you? _Oui_…even if our ways are different, we are still loyal to her, aren't we?

"You were her favorite of all of us, Yoko-sir. I can see it in her eyes, every time she looks at me…how much she'd rather be looking at you. Loyalty…that word means nothing since your departure and abandonment of her. She wanted **your** loyalty…not mine. You were her favorite. She loved to train you because she loved to see you grow. She was disappointed when you left her, to say the least. She had planned on keeping you close until your death…you, her favorite.

"I know you like to say its not true but…you know it is. The Mistress liked Toketsu and I…but…she was in love with you…infatuated with you, even, so much as a dark soul as hers can be. Every day, she thought about you. How to help you improve, new things she could teach, new things she wanted you to learn. I think it was because…you reminded her of herself. She wanted you to succeed in ways she could not because she was not of mortal flesh. She wanted you to belong to her, because you were like her reflection, more so than even her own twin sister. And so…she was…crushed, I suppose, if you can think of Kura that way. She was so upset…so frustrated…she blamed herself, you know. She cut herself off from you because – believe me or not – she was actually concerned that she was hurting you by interfering with your life. She didn't know what to do with herself…with anyone.

"She's hardened herself against 'going soft' ever again, since then, as you might imagine, but…I still don't think she's truly a bad person. I don't think **you** think she's a bad person, either, Yoko-sir. She doesn't hate you, you know."

Kurama blinked, emotion flitting briefly through his eyes. He had known all of that before…but…to hear it shoved in beneath his nose so gruffly certainly contrasted it from memories he'd been trying to keep away for the past several hours.

"You…want me to go after her, don't you Circe?"

"Please Yoko-sir. You and the Second Mistress are the only ones who have the power to stop her before she…does anything…regretful," Circe said solemnly, staring up at him with pleading eyes of twilight crystal. "I must fulfill her wishes by attempting to kill a few of you but…there are loopholes I am tempted to take advantage of. For instance, the Mistress has not specifically dictated that I must kill you _all_…nor that I need put my heart or power into it. Should I fail her, I may be in trouble but…I still want you to go after her."

Kurama hesitated before nodding vaguely. "Alright then."

Suddenly his bindings, as well as Kugami's, had vanished into thin air, their enchantments dissipating as both landed with expert clacks on the wooden floor in front of a stunned and silent Yusuke, a stoic Hiei, and an uncharacteristically speechless Kuwabara. Kurama flicked his hair back, staring Circe straight in the face, level with her gaze as well as the Goddess to his left. He finally nodded curtly and glanced over his shoulder at his comrades.

"Be careful you two," he said softly, before disappearing in a blur and out into the night beyond the hallway. Kuga nodded to them as well. "Take care," she murmured, before following her sister's disciple.

Circe watched them go betraying no emotion until they were both gone when a small smile, soft and sad, floated down upon her thin lips. "_Ganbatte kudasai_(**2**)_, Yoko-kun…_Bring our Kura back safely…"

* * *

Whoot! Finally done! Aintcha proud a' me? Yup…I've been writing this for three months now -.-;; If you don't review I shall kill you, you hear me? There's no way in hell I'm breaking my back for nothing . However, a huge thanks to my previous reviewers: 

**Muriko:** Ne! Someone new! Yes, I'm definitely planning on making dear Genkai-obaa survive. What's the fun without Grandma to whoop our dear Yusuke's ass every once in a while!

**DarkRubyMage:** Hi! I love your fic too…hope this chapter gives you more ideas for "Reikai Tantei Meets the Spirit Detectives".

**Kittengrl :** Okay, you haven't reviewed in a long while, but I'm still grateful!

Definitions:

(**1**) "Nihiki" : Specifically means "two birds". It's Circe-san's family name .

(**2**) "Ganbatte kudasai": Means "please do your best" or "goodluck, please" (if you really want it translated literally, which is REALLY not a good idea when dealing with Japanese)

If anyone was confused about the spelling during Circe's speeches, read it phonically. She's speacking with a French accent…and I tried to bring that out in the way she was talking. Nira and Neru shall be introduced soon…so, yeah. And the title was completely random. Heh. Had absolutely NOTHING to do with the chapter, darlings.

Please review! Please! Goddammit you guys! I'm begging you! PLEASE!


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